I have never played nor read this game, but the moment I heard about it I was struck with how it was clearly inspired by a specific cartoon from the early 90s which I'd hoped would eventually see inspired-by, serial-number-filed knockoffs: the ABC Saturday morning version of Sonic the Hedgehog. If you're not familiar with "the SatAM", looking into it might help you make some connections (it's obvious to me what an Ecology skill would be good for in a SatAM game, for instance).
pteryx
joined 2 years ago
This also relates to my mention elsewhere in this discussion of what used to be called "special snowflakes" (before the birdsite ruined the word "snowflake"). Some people want novelty and creativity above all in their RP, and that doesn't always come with a sense for how to balance that with intended theme or tone. And as you point out, if *no one* is playing things remotely straight, things can become farcical, or at least like an "Oops! All Foils" situation with no requisite normal.
It used to be that the opposite of "crunch" was "fluff". These days, instead of "fluff", people say "lore" — definitely a more respectful term for worldbuilding, metaplot, and the like than "fluff", which has implications of filler.
Nowadays, rather than contracting "crunch" with "fluff/lore", people are more likely to contrast it with being rules-lite.
It could also be applied to the "Chaotic Stupid" interpretation of Chaotic Neutral.
...Which does bring up the "stupid" alignments topic in general. There's also "Lawful Stupid" (being an asshole enforcer of rules and laws beyond all reason; one of the more infamous ways to play a paladin), "Stupid Good" ("I'm sure the dark lord is just lonely and needs a friend!"), and "Stupid Evil" (being malicious and destructive in ways that don't serve one's interests and might even endanger oneself).
"Special snowflake" used to be a common, if mildly derisive, way to describe players who sought to play unique characters, or the characters so played. Such players often wanted to portray new types of characters, though they were often accused of just trying to hog attention or disrupt the game world's verisimilitude.
"Special snowflake" fell into disuse rapidly in the 2010s when political discourse on social media *utterly ruined* the word "snowflake".
For me it's not so much combat I'm looking for as competence (and due to this, D&D 5e irritates me for largely restricting competence to combat by various means). PBtA rubs me the wrong way primarily because, when combined with a system that makes "yes, but" the most common result, moves feel less like the things your character can do well and more like the things characters try to do despite not being good at them.
Also, PBtA games tend to dictate *who* your character is more than most.
@Shkshkshk @leave_it_blank
An important bit of context for "based on America" these days: is this America-alike being run by orange Voldemort already?
I'm thinking Ecology would likely be very useful for helping to restore areas damaged by the machine revolution -- the worse the damage, the harder the job. Maybe one easy roll to replant after a clearcut, a whole adventure to restore a mechanized town.
As for Academics... the use of that sort of skill in TTRPGs in general is often to enable exposition and determine how extensive that exposition is. (Basically look at how Sally's handheld computer Nicole is used.)